It is a sore task that God has given to the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.--Kohelet

Sunday, November 29, 2015

They Don't Teach This Stuff in Sunday School

For kids, Sunday school is a fun place to go. It's an informal setting in which to learn all of the church stuff they need to know. Who wouldn't love that? Kids get to learn all of the Bible stories like Noah's Ark, Daniel in the lion's Den, baby Jesus in the manger. There are more, but you get the idea. As kids get older they learn more important stuff. They learn more about Jesus and how he supposedly died as a sacrifice for the world. Sometimes they learn how to apply Christian teaching into their personal lives. On the surface, it all sounds really good. But, there is a lot of stuff they don't teach.

They don't teach that Jesus, being a Jew, was under the Law of Moses. They don't teach anything about the Law of Moses. They don't teach any of that stuff. They teach who Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were. They teach that Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt. They teach that Moses went up on the mountain and received the Ten Commandments. They make sure to teach about the golden calf Aaron made ( you know those Jews should have known better). But, they don't teach anything about the tent of meeting, the sacrificial system, or the Amalekites who tried to slaughter the Children of Israel. They don't teach how the people's clothes didn't wear out, or how God delivered their enemies into their hand. No, they don't teach any of that stuff in Sunday school.

They teach how Jesus healed the sick, made the blind to see, and fed five thousand people with a few loaves of bread and some fish. They teach how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and turned the water into wine (but it wasn't really wine, it was grape juice because Christians aren't allowed to drink alcohol). But they don't teach that anyone who comes along teaching something other that what Moses taught, even if they do miracles, is a false prophet. They don't teach any of that stuff.

They don't teach that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John didn't actually write the gospels. They don't teach that these books were written much later after Jesus died. They do teach that the gospels are first-hand accounts of Jesus' life. But they aren't. They don't teach that the original Greek versions of the gospels aren't even attributed to anyone. Those names were added much later. They don't teach that Paul said it was okay to convince people to believe in Jesus by trickery. Again, they don't teach that stuff in Sunday school.

They don't teach the history of Christianity in Sunday school. They don't teach that Christians slaughtered Jews all across Europe. They don't teach that Native Americans were also slaughtered because they weren't Christian. They don't teach that Christians stole the property of Jews and anyone else who wouldn't convert to Christianity. They don't teach about when the church had the policy of convert or die. They don't teach that stuff in Sunday school.

There are so many things they don't teach in Sunday school and I could go on and on. I understand why they don't. I understand that if they actually taught scripture, everyone would simply leave. There would be no one left to teach. The saddest thing is, they believe the stuff they are teaching. It isn't their fault, it's the same stuff they were taught.